5 Worst Weight Loss Mistakes You Can Make on the South Beach Diet

Nice work! You chose the South Beach Diet to help you lose weight and get in the best shape of your life. But before you hit cruise control and enjoy the road to a healthier, leaner bod, be sure you aren’t making simple weight loss mistakes that can get between you and your weight loss goal.

While the South Beach Diet is simple to follow, small reoccurring slip-ups can slow down your results and throw you off track. To avoid encountering these weight loss mistakes, you can take simple precautions to ensure you are sticking tot the guidelines of your weight loss plan.

Here are five of the worst weight loss mistakes you can make while on South Beach Diet and how to avoid them:

1. Skipping Meals

A rookie mistake: You think that if you eat only your South Beach Diet entrées and skip out on the recommended three snacks and veggie servings, you’ll lose weight faster.

While we applaud your enthusiasm (and we know just how excited you are to see those great results), hear us out: This is one big mistake you’ll want to avoid at all costs, even if you’re not feeling hungry when snack time rolls around. A study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics found that women who reported skipping meals lost less weight—almost eight pounds less!—than women who didn’t.

If you find that you’re just not hungry at a certain time of the day, you can adjust your meal and snack times. Shift things out so that you’re getting all the food your plan calls for, at a time that works best for your schedule. Just be mindful of timing between meals so you don’t get too hungry at any one point in the day and end up overeating to compensate for it.

Your South Beach Diet plan is designed to provide the right nutrition for fast weight loss. So, skipping meals or snacks means you’ll miss out on some of the vital nutrients—Lean Proteins, Healthy Fats and Good Carbs—that are essential to the South Beach Diet plan. Missing a serving or two of Lean Proteins or Healthy Fats messes with that winning combination of nutrients that’s responsible for getting your body into fat-burning mode, which is where the magic of the South Beach plan happens. Invest in the program, and don’t let skipping meals and snacks be on of your biggest weight loss mistakes.

Follow the meal plan. Eat all the snacks. Trust the process!

2. Overdoing it Unknowingly

On the opposite end of the spectrum, it’s also possible to add in too many extras without realizing it. What exactly are extras? On the South Beach Diet, they’re all those little things that might not be on your radar yet—the pinch or dash of an ingredient that’s been part of your normal routine for so long that you don’t even give it a second thought—like that splash of creamer in your coffee, or that swirl of oil in the pan before you start cooking.

Before you panic, know this: There’s a place for these items in your South Beach Diet plan. We call them extras because they add a little something “extra” to your foods—but they are limited to three per day, every day. So choose wisely! Plan your day around the extras that really make a food or beverage that much more enjoyable to you, and ditch the ones you can live happily without.

Here’s the rule of thumb to avoid adding this to your weight loss mistakes list: Anything with between 10 to 35 calories and less than 6 grams of carbs per serving counts as an extra. When you start the diet, it’s helpful to have a measuring spoon handy to measure out and get a sense for what a teaspoon and tablespoon actually look like. Some of our faves include:

Balsamic vinegar, 1 Tbsp.

Cream, whole milk or half-and-half, 1 Tbsp.

Salsa, 2 Tbsp.

Sour cream, 1 Tbsp.

Unsweetened almond milk, 1 cup

3. Tossing aside your South Beach guides

Remember that neat little package of printed goodies that came in the box along with your South Beach Diet meals and snacks? Yes THAT package! We’ll give you a minute to rummage through your desk drawers and dig it out. (No judgement—we know how great of a feeling it is when your order arrives, and how excited you are to get started on your plan already!)

Ok back? Great! You’re now (hopefully) holding in your hands some very valuable information on the ins and outs of your plan.

Now this next part might sound like homework. But let’s call it homework for your health. Yeah—that doesn’t make it sound any more exciting, but it’s important: Read this stuff cover to cover!

Your Quick Start Guide for Phase 1 is a complete blueprint for your first week. It lays out exactly what to eat, when and why. Pro tip: Fold your Quick Start Guide so the menu faces out and hang it up on the fridge. Now you can cross out each meal as you eat it, check off your water intake and activity for the day, and stay on track throughout your first week.

You will get a Quick Start Guide for Phase 2. Phase 2 begins on the second week of the program. During this Phase, you slowly start to add in your own food to the program. The Phase 2 Quick Start Guide provides the details for the first week of Phase 2, where you will add in your own Healthy Fats and Lean Proteins, and start to incorporate DIY meals.

Once you finish the first week of Phase 2, you then will move on to using the Phase 2 Daily Tracker. The Phase 2 Daily tracker provides details on adding back even more foods, including Good Carbs, Fruits and Starchy Vegetables. The Phase 2 tracker will be your guide for the remainder of Phase 2. Your Daily Tracker for Phase 2 contains the essentials for the rest of the plan—AKA the phase you’ll be on until you reach your goal weight! So do yourself the favor of combing through this guide to ensure you’re doing this right.

Want to succeed? Get friendly with those guides! They are here to help you get the hang of your plan.

We’ve been there: When it comes to getting healthy you’re either all in—or nothing at all. You start off at 100%, pedal-to-the-metal, perfectly following your meal plan to a “T”. Then you have one slip or make one mistake and you call it off for the rest of the day/weekend/week. Because none of it counts if you don’t do it right from the start, right? Wrong!

If this sounds like you, letting go of that black-and-white, all-or-nothing attitude can really help. Life happens and when it does, it does not mean that all bets are off. Practice getting right back to your plan immediately after a slip-up or missed workout—drink a full glass of water, go for a walk, get in an extra serving of veggies—and see what happens to your mindset and how you feel by the end of the day. Don’t let one of the most common weight loss mistakes hinder your results!

Chances are, you’ll be happier that you chose to get back on track, instead of letting the rest of the day snowball into something much worse. So don’t let one mistake ruin your otherwise healthy day—you’ve got this!

5. Never calling your weight loss counselor

Our expertly trained weight loss counselors are here for you, any time you need it. From the time your box arrives to the day you reach your goal, our weight loss counselors can help you set realistic goals, stay motivated, and provide tips on the meal plan, grocery additions, dining out, exercise and everything in between.

Getting the right answers when you need them is an important part of your weight loss journey, so don’t make the mistake of not tapping into this valuable resource! Chat a counselor online, email counseling@southbeachdiet.com or call 1-888-841-2620.